First , I want to say welcome back. It's been possibly almost three months since I've made a recent written post/entry. Long story short, I did a summer session taking two art classes (since I am a Fine Arts Major) that were taught by the cool Professor Julie A. Nagle. After completing the session and classes as well as having a new found appreciation for using charcoal (Burton if you see this, you now have me convinced. Haha.)
In the weeks that I had left to enjoy my summer vocation I took interest in catching up reading some comics and looking up video game cutscenes movies /walkthroughs of games I may never get a chance to play or ever have the time to purchase. I took the time to watch games such as Outlast (along with the Downloadable content :Whistleblower) courtesy of watching Dashi Game's YouTube channel for the hilarious commentary to get me through the game's scares and interesting storyline.
I also looked into old gems such as Edios and Crystal Dynamics Legacy Of Kain games series. I started from Soul Reaver 1 to then watch Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance which had some very great story telling and interesting setting that focused on elements of Shakespearean tragedy, irony, fate, illusion of choice, dreams/ nightmares , gothic settings, vampires and revelation. Given that it was made in a very interesting time of the late 90's - early 2000's where there was this era of heavily dark and light story telling. Pretty much as you can see, I've been very interested in a lot of mystery, noir, thriller based stories that have influenced my art style due to the use of charcoal and the balance of light and dark elements.
For my English 102 class my professor assigned the story "Where are you going, where have you been?" By Joyce Carol Oats. I read the short story and I liked the subtle eerie atmosphere that seems to appear in a lot of things I like which goes like this as a premise in most mystery stories:
things seem normal, but almost too normal to the point where things start to feel a little off. You don't know how or why, but you know it's this unsettling feeling that draws you to feel that way. Little by little as you search for the answers to the unsteady feeling, You realize that the seeds planted has been around you this whole time. It's just waiting for you to realize where it all began. And in that sense, the dreary feeling of irony rears it's head and you realize the scary joke that loomed right in front of your face the whole time.
It's stories like that that do so well in making things feel all too familiar due to how close to reality that the tension of fear tends to extend with it's literary, psychological /physical reach. No matter how real or fictional a story is, the fact that the fear of the unknown goes beyond any words goes to show how well done and executed of a theme that is expressed throughout the world around us is. No matter how grand or minimal the fear, the over whelming feeling grabs us and pulls us in. Whether the protagonist faces the fear all the way down to the very end is always an unsure case based on who is writing a story of almost any kind. With that said, that's what has been of interest to me as of late. The gripping narrative, subtle flashbacks, the need to see to everything all the way to the very end is something that I believe any reader, or writer can agree on. If you know how to manipulate the feelings of the audience, then yore doing something right. That's something I seek more and more in story telling and in art. Not the fear aspect, just the general emotions and roller coasters that give readers the kind of fulfilled journeys that is worth revisiting from time to time. Nothing is better than finishing a story of any media and giving a large sigh of relief. Nuff said.
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